OK this post was made Aug 20th 2005!Right folks,
I guess its time for an update again. The last update was over a year ago and as you can imagine Ive managed to do quite a bit. The engine is running and it drives!
The major part of the bodywork is done. So as usual, when all of you think I'm doing nowt I am in fact busily working away at my own pace.....
OK were did I leave it last.... yes... the weight saving programme
http://www.pitstopdevelopments.com/foru ... t40+weight
and before that the project outline:
http://www.pitstopdevelopments.com/foru ... t40+update
cool, Ok, well..... not much has changed in the overall plan, the only design change is the orientation of the turbo and the intercooler entry cap, which removes some bends (making it about 1% more effiecient
). Oil cooler is on and as you can see Ive pretty much maximized the frontal area for air flow. Bumper area : Left is the air filter, middle intercooler and right is the oil cooler.
Up above I have some airflow for the turbo itself and then the radiator. Good stuff… the panels and bumper will be designed with ducting to maximize airflow through the appropriate bits.
The metal part of the bumper (adapted from a mk2 polo inner bumper) now bolts into where you can see the end of the chassis legs and to that is where the IC spray can go, be interesting to see if that makes any difference. All in All: Purposeful!
You might think the intercooler looks squint, its not the radiator is at a slight angle left side more forwards..... and the ground isnt even either...
Well, since the last update the car interior has been sprayed satin black, which against the powdered blue safety devices cage looks rock! It all ties in nicely with the front space frame to make a solid little car.
The engine bay has also been sprayed in the body colour (orginal body colour!) of comet blue.
(note lack of wheel well!)
Engine has been(obviously) refitted with the oil cooler and intercooler, battery has been relocated to behind the passenger seat to get the weight lower and between the axles. Same will be done for the tanks for the Aquamist, Screen wash and IC spray tanks. Yes.... the engine runs! (woo hoo!)
Gearbox: Well I redesigned it again! I popped in a brand new gripper LSD from Ti and lowered all the ratios to roughly the same as a GT. This will counter act the 17inch wheels and give overall better gearing. Before the theoretical geared top speed was something daft like 207mph! Anyway..... new box, sweet ratios, bullet proof diff...and it doesnt leak! The Gbox is still the weak link in the whole affair though... I'll be taking bets on how long it will last....!!!
Body Panels.... ok this is where all the recent work has been put in. Basically, they are/will be carbon fibre.... Here's the story.
17's on the polo look a little out of place, so I designed a body kit to make them look at home. I used the R32 and the butch audis as a guideline as I want it to look butch but standardish, ie not loads of vents and wings etc. So I needed to make a plug.... of the whole car!!! CRASH COURSE IN MAKING BITS: Make what you want out of anything you can get your hands on, as long as you can get a high gloss finish it should be ok, so metal, weld , wood catty fiberglass anything….. then you have your plug, Use the plug to make a mould and the mould to make your product and hey r presto you have a product that’s a replica of your plug but made with finky materials…… anyway…..
I used a scrap 1.0 fox and made my kit out of metal, weld, fibre glass, wood and any other material to hand..... eventually looked a bit like this....
Little arch tweaking…..
As you can see the bottom of the car has been beefed out quite a bit… meaning the doors will be done too…… now if you look at the side profile of a std mk2/3 polo it curves underneath the car and goes in at the bottom……
add a bit of door panel to keep the coachline going:
Clothed as the T you can see the side is now much flatter and stays out at the bottom, making it look a little better and making the 17s at home (although in this pic there is a 13 at the back!)
thats the shape I want..ish, now I needed to make it look nicer: oh well here comes the dust and the catty………
I also needed to break the panels up and make them manageable… and well there wasn’t much left of the poor fox…. It developed a bit of a ground clearance problem… but not the type you usally have on a car….
I enlisted the help of a catty GOD mate who after many (expensive) hours made the panels (the plugs) look fantastic, money well spent...
that deserves a free plug for my mate at PFP!
http://www.pfpcoachworks.co.ukI was very pleased with the whole shape of it all in all, I think I would like to do more to the design of the bonnet section but to be honest Im sick to death of body work…. The quarter panels though I am delighted with…… I mean you’ll never know how it will turn out till its finished and painted but its looking good…. Will make the 17’s look right at home…..
OK so I had the plugs, now I needed to make the moulds which are used to make the final product.
To avoid a lengthy explanation on how to do this I'll be brief..... I polished them all up, applied some PVA release agent, plastacine to allow for split moulds, Gel coat, fibre tissue in the appropriate places and the triple ply glass fibre all hand impregnated with the polyester resin.... those last three lines took about three weeks just for the 1/4 panels... lol....
anyway, Thats how the Moulds are made, making the product is far easier.. same process just single or double ply using different gel coats, resins and of course Carbon fibre weave.
So here are the 1/4 panels being worked on.
You can see the plasticine oin the right one and the gell coat applied. I have already started laying up glass fibre matt on the left one…..
As you can see I have made a split mould which means its far easier to break the product from the mould because the mould unbolts and comes apart! You can see I have used plasticine to create the borders of the split. Once the top section of the mould is dry you flip it over and peel off the plasticine and lay up the rest of the mould…… dry it, drill holes and then split the whole lot up….. again about a week to do the last three lines!
Here is the finished Mould…… (a mirror of the plug…..)
The product is made and the original metal panels cut off (braced) and the new panel bonded on. As you will see from the Weight saving post I already have my frames for the doors and tailgate which the Carbon panels will be bonded to.
I started with the 1/4 panels as they are by far the most complex, the rest should be easy by comparison except the bumpers.... . I haven't even started on those. Once they are all made and bonded its off to the body shop for painting. Yes, some of your will cry “ it’s a crime to paint carbon!!†well let me say this and I hope you agree…. Yes its normally a crime to paint carbon. But, anything but an nice paint job will look e silly on a polo….. people have suggested I apply thing paint so you can see the weave or just simply not paint it….
Well ok sound like a good idea I mean the ferarri F40 has that…… But if you see a ferrari F40 in the street and you notice the paint finish is a little odd you then click…. Ahhh! Carbin body work…nice! But if you see a polo in the street with an odd paint finish you think……. “Doh, that gotta be the crappest paint job I’ve seen in ages! Hop he got that on the cheap!â€
Well that my theory. Also the car is blue, I hate the black bonnet on a blue/white/green whatever colour car… ( no offence to anyone intended!)….. I think its best the car stays blue…
Just working on a plug for a dashboard too ( well a panel to but gauges in!)... need to figure out where Im gonna put all the guages and gadget displays etc etc....Heres the selected steering wheel:
Note the filler neck.......Petrol cap will be flushed with the rear window…..
Progress is slow but steady, hoping to have the body done in october time. Then I can concentrate back on the engine. As some of you already know, the engine is still standard (block head etc) and I have another engine that I have been building for a while. The “make it go†engine produced 185bhp before the intercooler and aquamist etc etc so that will still go well…. Give you an indication of the potential of the turbo set up…..The manifold is the key…..
Take the body as an example, I have gone to similar efforts on the engine. I have had the parts for up to 2 years now including quad throttle bodies. I just need the time!!!....the creme de la creme though was this.......I bought a DTA P8Pro November last year..... which for those of you who dont know what it is, it means..... all singing all dancing ECU including: Launch Control, Traction control and even Anti-Lag!! Gonna be fun putting that together..... I'm deffo an engine man..... bodywork sucks.....Pity thats all I'll be doing for a few months at least..... ho hum….
Also before anyone asks….I do not want to think about the man hours I’ve sunk into this…..not right now,,, maybe when its done!
Cheers for the encouragement( I think….. might not have grown arms and legs without iy
lol )
Cheers.
Mark.